The Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health (CRCAIHΓÇöpronounced ΓÇ£KIRK-uhΓÇ¥) was formed in September 2012 with a grant from the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities.

MISSION: The Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health (CRCAIH) is designed to create a platform to bring together Tribal communities and health researchers from multiple disciplines, to work together in conducting cutting-edge transdisciplinary research that addresses significant health disparities experienced by American Indians in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

Our goal is to build tribal research infrastructure and promote transdisciplinary research teams to improve American Indian health through examination of social and environmental influences on health.

The Research Division provides leadership to support the implementation of three large-scale research projects designed to accelerate the discovery of new interventions and expand the utilization/adaptation of existing evidence-based interventions for preventing, reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities.

Emergency Department Use and Care in American Indian Children (Puumala - PI)

The Research Division also monitors and assesses progress and accomplishments of all research projects to ensure adequate progress according to defined timelines.

Using a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, the Community Engagement and Innovation Division (CEID) works with tribal partners in developing or strengthening research infrastructure through:

Coordinating community engagement activities to meet tribal research agenda goals

Building community/tribal capacity by identifying community health priorities, trainings, working groups or information resources

Working with Community Liaisons to develop strategies that meet the community's health and research endeavors to reduce or address the community's health disparities

The Methodology Core (MC) consults on the planning and design stages of studies. It provides data management services and also trains tribal communities and researchers in current data management methods. The MC advises on:

Study design

Data collection form design

Report generation

Statistical analysis

The Culture, Science and Bioethics Core (CSBC) mission is to facilitate ethical research that meets the cultural and contextual needs of tribal communities within the CRCAIH region by bridging aspects of traditional, western/academic, and policy sciences. Its aims are to:

Develop and integrate training modules on research for AI/AN communities and health researchers.

Work to develop collaborative efforts between CRCAIH and NCAI that utilize CRCAIH cores and advance research in the ND/SD/MN region.Help CRCAIH disseminate products and resources to a national audience

The Administrative Division provides leadership to:

Ensure all CRCAIH milestones/goals are met in a timely fashion

Facilitate engagement of partners through promotion of timely and effective communication

In addition to the oversight and fiscal responsibilities, the Administrative Division heads the Annual Summit, Pilot Grants Program, and Evaluation.

AI/AN health issues

In the U.S., racial and ethnic minorities continue to have higher rates of disease and early death than the rest of the nation.

The American Indian / Alaska Native (AI/AN) population is the smallest U.S. racial and ethnic minority group. In spite of its small size, the AI/AN group has:

The highest health risk factors of any racial minority

The highest percentage of chronic disease of any racial minority

A life expectancy lower than that of the general U.S. population

A cancer mortality rate 40% higher than that of the general U.S. population

A cardiovascular disease rate 100% higher than that of the general U.S. population

An infant mortality rate 20% higher than the average rate for all minorities

Poverty, low levels of education, low socio-economic status, crime, and greater exposure to environmental hazards all contribute to the health crisis of the AI/AN population. In addition, there are regional health differences between AI populations.

In many studies, Northern Plains tribes have worse health and more chronic illness than tribes in the southern U.S.

The social determinants of health

All CRCAIH projects will support a ΓÇ£social determinants of healthΓÇ¥ theme. The social determinants of health are the social factors that affect the health of individuals and groups. The factors include:

Transdisciplinary research

All CRCAIH research projects will be transdisciplinary. Transdisciplinary research uses the involvement of many disciplines and perspectives to create new practices and problem-solving methods.

CRCAIH project experts will include:

Tribal health administrators

Spiritual leaders

Academic health researchers in a wide variety of disciplines

Healthcare providers in a wide variety of disciplines

CRCAIH is one of the National Institute of Health's Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centers for Health Disparities Research funded projects. For more information on Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centers click here.